Hacking & Their Motives

The term “hacking” has many meaning and is commonly used to refer to a form of trespassing against a computer belonging to someone else. But hacking kind of has a range of meanings. A hacker can be someone breaking into computers or networks, a programmer in the free software and open source movement or a enthusiastic home computer hobbyist.

In the mid 1960’s hacking was a way to solve programming problems and create alternative means (or shortcuts) around certain computer issues. Hackers also looked into government and business records to exploit any harm that they were doing to the general public. Back then hackers were kind of the “robin hood” of the industry. They would rob from these institutions and give back to the public.

Nowadays, hackers seem to do more harm then good to the general population. They damage networks, create viruses and run rapid around cyberspace destroying or exploiting anything they can get their hands on. Overall hackers penetrate networks for many reasons. An attacker could have a couple of reasons to target a system. Here are a few possible motives hackers may have when breaking into a network.

Hacktivism:

Hacktivism can best be described as hacking for political reasons. The premise is that some hackers will use their skills and knowledge to forward a political, free speech movements or human rights agendas. This is sometimes coined to describe how electronic direct action might work towards a social change by combining programming skills with critical thinking.

Hack-nerd connection:

This is the most widely known reason for hacking. This is the recognition and desire for fame, you can call it trying to be “elite”, or even having bragging rights of their skills as being a hacker.   

For knowledge:

In this world today people are judged and recognized by how much they know. This quest for knowledge has brought hacking websites that will teach people how to hack. By this phenomenon newbie’s have a vast amount of tools, scripts and information that they can use. Penetrating a system is an attractive thing to do for most enthusiastic technology involved people; it implies good knowledge of the penetrated system, which is an appreciated quality in the information age, at least for some.

Industrial espionage:

Industrial espionage refers to illegal activities, which can range from outright theft to bribery and anywhere in between. By having the power of hacking, hackers can be hired by businesses or firms to cover-up or perform unethical business practices to gain additional benefits. Sometimes firms will hire hackers to attack a competitor to increase their market share as well. To a hacker there can be a huge financial benefit.

E-terrorism:

            Although the Internet can be used by terrorist, the occurrence of e-terrorism is still low. Terrorists usually need to show visual fear, for example the Oklahoma City bombing or the terrorist attack on the World Trade centers. But there is still a motivation with some ethic groups. A group called the Mafia Hacking Team is an Iranian hacking group that seeks out American websites and hacks into them. 

This team of hackers also sets up phishing websites on the user’s web space to try and gather personal and financial information of users. They do this by sending out SPAM to thousands of email account trying to get the user to update their banking or other account information. The link in this SPAM email will then redirect them to this unauthorized phishing website on the hacked users web space.

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Terminology:

Black Hat =An unethical hacker

White Hat = An ethical hacker

 

SOURCES:

http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/faqs/hacker-howto.html 

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9054479&intsrc=hm_list

http://www.aviransplace.com/2005/07/18/hacker-erased-spammers-database/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042600260.html